Mack Brown explains why Omarion Hampton's big game doesn't mean he's RB1

The UNC Tar Heels had an impressive 56-24 victory over Florida A&M to start their season. Freshman running back Omarion Hampton led the Heels in rushing with an impressive 101 rushing yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries. Hampton’s freshman debut was superb, but head coach Mack Brown said it doesn’t necessarily make him the starting running back for the season.

“We have told the guys it’s every day, you’ve got to produce every day and you never know if a freshman is going to be able to handle the pressure of going to work with a focus every day. So tomorrow will be interesting, Tuesday’s practice will be interesting to see if he’s walking around with a little swagger, if he goes back to work. So we have told them that you gotta produce every day if you’re going to keep the job and there a lot of good running backs,” Brown said.

Hampton also added two kickoff returns for 51 yards to his day, but overall Brown feels good about his stable of running backs this season, and mentioned the names of some other young backs that contributed to the Tarheels win and could continue to contribute the remainder of the season.

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“Elijah Green‘s really good, he comes in at the end of the game and we’re trying to get the game over and he’s about to score. But we’re fortunate to have a lot of good running backs, Caleb Hood has missed a lot of pre-season, he had a fumble on the sideline even though it went out of bounds, we’re not going to fumble the ball. So we’ve got to take care of the ball, so that was another message to him, but the guy’s going to play because he’s really good too,” Brown said.

Brown lost his projected starting running back in British Brooks earlier this month to a season ending injury, who was the team’s second leading rusher at running back last season for the Tar Heels. Now Brown will have to rely on his committee of backs for this season, which hasn’t been a problem for them in the past. Brown has had a group of running backs in the last few seasons become NFL draft picks like Javonte Williams, Michael Carter, and most recently Ty Chandler, and maybe his next great running back will emerge on the scene this season.

Regardless, whoever ends up getting touches for North Carolina this season will have to do one thing if they want to be a part of Brown’s run game, not turn the ball over.

“Guys that’re going to play are going to take care of the ball,” Brown said.